SSE Fibre broadband

I'm thinking of switching from Sky to SSE because they have a good offer on at the moment. However, I have a few questions. Do SSE still use a separate fibre modem or do they just use one box? If they just use one box, why is an engineer visit still necessary? Which router do SSE currently supply? Is it easy to use your own router (I know the Sky one won't work)? Is congestion still a problem or have things improved?

I have been with SSE for nearly 5 months. The price is amazing and overall, the service is OK but the evenings are rather slow, especially if using P2P applications. As far as I know they still use one box. That's what they sent me - a dual-band Technicolor TG589vac, which works well. An engineer was promised for my install but didn't arrive, so I did it myself (we already had fibre broadband). I think you could easily use your own router, with or without a separate modem, as required.

SSE operate a very restriction traffic management policy.

They throttle their users usually at time of peak demand such as evenings and weekends.

The price is amazing if you just want regular usage. For me, SSE is not recommended for P2P i.e. any sort of torrenting.

P2P and torrenting is fine during the day, just not the evenings

Simple to use your own router, I use my own

Just be aware that if you want caller display, or other addons, they will set you back £3.50 a month extra

I have been with BT for about 3 years now and am not in contract.
They charge me £62 per month including the line rental.
This thread is interesting to me because SSE sound ok depending on the price , how much would they charge me for say 80/20 FTTC per month.?
And do I have to keep my line with BT.
I only use the broadband not the phone.?

SSE is £21 per month total. That includes unlimited 80/20 fibre broadband (they call it Ultrafast), anytime phone calls and calls to international numbers in 20 countries. That offer lasts until 14th November. You will need to have their phone package even if you don't use it so you pay them for everything, but it's still a BT line really, underneath.

Oh, and there's no postage charge for the free dual-band router - makes a change!

Concerning Caller Display (which somebody else mentioned), I had that already when I switched over. I phoned them and said I didn't want to pay extra for that. They said OK. I still have it several months later and I'm not paying extra!

Edited by rjh321 (Thu 20-Oct-16 11:55:41)

In reply to a post by rjh321:

SSE is £21 per month total. That includes unlimited 80/20 fibre broadband (they call it Ultrafast), anytime phone calls and calls to international numbers in 20 countries. That offer lasts until 14th November. You will need to have their phone package even if you don't use it so you pay them for everything, but it's still a BT line really, underneath.

Oh, and there's no postage charge for the free dual-band router - makes a change!

Concerning Caller Display (which somebody else mentioned), I had that already when I switched over. I phoned them and said I didn't want to pay extra for that. They said OK. I still have it several months later and I'm not paying extra!

Thanks! rjh321 will give them a call later.
About P2P slowdowns , I think that most ISP`s try to slow P2P down.?
I don`t use wifi [wireless] just Ethernet to router so the dual band bit should not concerned me.

Edited by deleted (Thu 20-Oct-16 12:21:40)

P2P is OK during the day. Suits me as I'm retired!
Ethernet to the router should be fine.
You might get the best deal by ordering through their website - www.sse.co.uk.

Overall I'm happy with SSE. For £21 a month can't complain. Needed to download a 3GB app the other night, took 8 minutes, this is fine

In reply to a post by davidoff911:

SSE operate a very restriction traffic management policy.

They throttle their users usually at time of peak demand such as evenings and weekends.

The price is amazing if you just want regular usage. For me, SSE is not recommended for P2P i.e. any sort of torrenting.

The 150+ pages on UKHD with complaints backs that up

ISPs that do not slow down P2P:

1) Sky
2) PlusNet
3) BT
4) TalkTalk

I would say if you slow it down you're one of the odd ones out.

+ AAISP
As far as I know also Pulse8broadband.

In reply to a post by rjh321:

what they sent me - a dual-band Technicolor TG589vac, which works well.

Hello all
I'm almost out of my current contract so I'm choosing between SSE and Plusnet. I know Plusnet give you the Hub One that can run OpenWRT (although some soldering is required).
As for SSE's TG589vac - can someone please check and tell me if it hasan option for a Bridge mode? It should be there - at least TG589n has this - but I'm not sure if SSE's version has a locked down firmware?

Looking in "Setup Your Gateway" under "Connection Configuration - VDSL", under "Routed Type", there is a "Bridge" option, if that's any help. This site has the most information about this router:
Technicolor TG589vac

Tread carefully. They suspended sign ups because they couldn't handle the influx. From 55mb down to 0.5mb at peak and a couple of BTOR engineer visits before I was allowed to leave penalty free (and I wasn't the only one).

Maybe it has improved now, which hopefully it will do as it could be a good service.

Agreed with Discus - be very careful.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Fri 21-Oct-16 20:07:09)